In a world that is increasingly flooded by hashtags, becomes more and more difficult to filter between meaningful, meaningless and entertaining. #womennotobjects belongs to the meaningful.
It’s not only the hashtags that flood into our world, but also the advertising: posters, advertisements, commercials, internet pop ups. Most of them we hardly notice in everyday life, that’s just how prevalent they are. And maybe we therefore we don’t take enough notice of how sexist a lot of advertising is. The motto “sex sells” still seems to be on the wall in capital letters in the advertising agencies. Which makes it all the more surprising that a New York advertising agency now wants to draw attention exactly how sexist advertising is. Under the hashtag #womennotobjects agency boss Madonna Badger has launched a campaign to highlight the problem.
“I am your mother, daughter, sister, employee, manager and CEO. Do not talk to me that way,” is the strong message that ends the clip full of examples of ads that’ve used sexist images to sell products. Can the advertising industry change? This campaign could be an important step in the right direction.
Credits
Text Lisa Leinen